Chosen reluctant bishop of Bovino, Italy in December 1728; consecrated on 2 July1729 in Saint Peter’s Basilica, he served his diocese the remaining 23 years of his life. Known for his charity to the poor (he gave away most of his personal income), and the creation of schools and catechism classes for the young and the poor, theological and training in public speakign for Mpriests, all of whom had been much neglected in a tiny diocese beset with political problems. He travelled through the diocese, re-equipped and repaired churches, enforced discipline on his clergy who had fallen into worldly ways, raised the standards and revilatized the liturgy and parish life throughout his see, and even visited hermits to ensure that their lives were in line with Church teachings. His reforms were opposed by local lords and princes who had fostered and who benefitted from the lax and worldly ways of the priests and people, who wanted to control appointments of clergy and offices, and who tried to treat Church property as their own. Bishop Antonio fought them at every step, always defending the poor and outcast, and the rights of the Church, and ignoring their demands for the appointment of friends and followers to positions that he filled with more qualified candidates. He restored the cathedral, which had fallen into disrepair, and supported a resumption of devotions. Somewhere along the way he managed to writeManual of Theology which was used as a standard textbook for many years, and in 1740 a book about the saints and beati from the first 200 years of the Franciscan Conventuals.